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ISRAEL: AIR RAIDS CALLED OFF November 20, 2006
Zainab Osman
(SomaliNet) Israel's air force cancelled a planned raid on the home of a Gaza militant on Sunday after hundreds of Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the building, an Israeli military spokesman and witnesses said.
Hours after the "human shield" protest, an Israeli aircraft attacked a car carrying Hamas militants on a crowded Gaza City street. Hospital officials said an elderly passerby died of his wounds after being hit in the strike.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz spoke on Sunday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by phone and urged him to take steps to stop militants firing rockets into Israel, a Defense Ministry spokeswoman said.
A senior Palestinian official said Abbas had called for a "mutual ceasefire" in Gaza and the West Bank. Peretz, apparently told Abbas: "There will be no ceasefire as long as rockets fall on our cities and towns." Peretz and Abbas last spoke in October.
Israel has stepped up attacks in northern Gaza since a Palestinian rocket strike killed an Israeli woman and seriously wounded a man in the Israeli town of Sderot on Friday.